CASTING CALL:
20-SOMETHINGS DIVORCING
The Prime Time Emmy-nominated producers of 'HOARDERS,' 'Women of Homicide' and 'Sell This House' are launching an empowering new reality series for a major cable network about brave young people going through a divorce and embarking on a new journey in their lives. With the right to marry for so many now a reality, divorce in the LGBTQQIA community is inevitable. Long excluded as traditionally recognized couples, LGBTQQIA voices are now part of the national narrative on marriage; likewise, LGBTQQIA people will have a visible presence in divorce. This new series will profile both Gay and straight individuals as they end their relationships and embark on new lives.
The National Center for Health Statistics reports 60 percent of marriages for couples between the ages of 20 and 25 end in divorce. People get married for all sorts of reasons and they get divorced for just as many. This new show will explore the changes and challenges facing young people as they uncouple and get divorced. People who might be interested in participating in this new reality series can respond with their name, age, recent photo, and a brief summary of their situation by emailing to divorced@sfpseattle.com or by going to the casting page at www.sfpseattle.com/casting

LOVE IS THE MESSAGE -
A NIGHT AT THE GALLERY 1977
SPECIAL BENEFIT SCREENING:
GAY CITY HEALTH PROJECT
On Friday, June 6 and Saturday, June 7, at 7 p.m. at Northwest Film Forum (1515 12th Ave.), Derek Pavone and Bottom Forty present a screening of Nicky Siano's documentary film Love is the Message - A Night at the Gallery 1977 that takes the viewer back to the heydey of dance music for one night at New York's famed club, The Gallery, presenting an important snapshot of American dance music history. Tickets: $10 at http://loveisthemessage.brownpapertickets.com and at the door.

Opened in 1972 by Siano and his brother, The Gallery had such an effect on the dance music scene that it is still felt today in clubs around the world. Before Studio 54, Paradise Garage, and The Warehouse, there was The Gallery, where Nicky Siano could be found in the DJ booth every Saturday night. Grace Jones and Loleatta Holloway both made their first appearances at The Gallery, and Frankie Knuckles used to blow up balloons for the club. Frankie would also often bring DJ Larry Levan around to check out the music. This was a time before disco was disco, and before the imposing velvet ropes of the high-society discotheques.

To honor Siano's work with HIV/AIDS prevention and alternative treatments, all proceeds of this screening will benefit Gay City Health Project. Additionally, a contribution of $5 will enter the donor into a drawing for a signed copy of the DVD. A total of eight copies will be given away during a random drawing of all qualified donors. A Paypal account is required to donate online. Cash only donations can also be made at each screening. The drawing will be held on Sunday, June 8, and winners will be contacted. www.loveisthemessagemovie.com; www.facebook.com/events/480575998735739/

FANTASTIC Z. -
QUEERSPAWN
Local theatre company, Fantastic Z., is proud to present the West Coast premiere of queerSpawn by Mallory Avidon, Thursday through Saturday nights, from May 23-June 7 at 8 p.m., at Eclectic Theater (1214 10th Ave.).
queerSpawn is a playfully significant look at a different kind of bullying. A heterosexual cisgendered teenage boy with Lesbian mothers 'who love him more than sunshine' struggles with surviving high school in a small town. Facing four more years of outrageous bullying, he attempts to cope with this harsh reality by creating imaginary friends of tabloid headliners rather than telling his parents.

Tickets: $15 online at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/647037 or $20 at the doorFantastic.Z is a Northwest grown LGBT nonprofit theater company focusing on new and under produced works. This madcap, musically inclined, fun loving ensemble constantly strives to amuse, amaze, and entertain the community as a whole. By enlisting the strengths of burlesque performes, photographers, stand up comedians, and other 'can do' theatre artist into their ensemble, Fantastic.Z is proud to bring you queerSpawn.

URBAN LEAGUE -
JUNETEENTH CELEBRATION
JUNE 6-8
The Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle invites you to join them this weekend, June 6-8, to celebrate their 31st annual Juneteenth festival. Festivities will be held at Pratt Park (1800 S. Main St.) and will include many events such as an ice cream social, open mic, live music, church in the park, face painting, vendor and much more.
Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States. Dating back to 1865, it was on June 19th that the Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free. Note that this was two and a half years after President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation - which had become official January 1, 1863. The Emancipation Proclamation had little impact on the Texans due to the minimal number of Union troops to enforce the new Executive Order. However, with the surrender of General Lee in April of 1865, and the arrival of General Granger's regiment, the forces were finally strong enough to influence and overcome the resistance.

The event will be held Friday, June 6, with an ice cream social from 4 p.m. to dusk, and Saturday & Sunday, June 7 & 8, from 12 noon to dusk. For more information about The Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle, visit www.urbanleague.org

Election season is upon us once again, and it is time for our community to actively determine which candidates for public office are LGBTQ friendly. The Seattle Metropolitan Elections Committee (SEAMEC) is a non-partisan, all volunteer organization whose members are dedicated to rating candidates on how educated and amendable they are toward their LGBTQ constituents and their issues. SEAMEC needs volunteer candidate evaluation interviewers who can spare 3 hours on a weekday evening to ask our future leaders a whole lot of pointed questions, and rate them on their response.

'We need about 20 interviewers who are available in the last three weeks in June. This is a great chance to get face time with future state legislators, judges, and members of the U.S. Congress. The interviews go in depth, but there is an opportunity for volunteers to ask their own questions at the end,' said a SEAMEC Board member. A high-ranking score from SEAMEC is much coveted by progressive and open-minded candidates.

A volunteer orientation for prospective SEAMEC interviewers will be held on Saturday, June 7 from 3:30-5:30 p.m. at the Capitol Hill Branch of the Seattle Library located at 425 Harvard Avenue East. To get on the list of volunteers, call 206-666-8058 and leave a message, or email your name and phone number with a note that you would like to volunteer to seamec2014@gmail.com.

To help support the reduction of identity theft crimes, 1st Security Bank invites residents from our Puget Sound communities to shred and recycle their sensitive documents and/or recycle electronic eWaste such as computers, laptops and televisions that are no longer in use.

You may bring up to 10 boxes or bags of paper to be shredded. Shredding is free and will be done on a first come, first served basis until the truck is full.

There are items that can be put into the shredder with the paper and there are items that cannot:

SEATTLE PRIDE IDOL
FINALE
On Sunday, June 8, Seattle Out & Proud's (SO&P) 6th annual Seattle Pride Idol weekly talent showcase and competition comes to a close with the Finale competition featuring the winners of the past 11 weeks' competition vying for the title of Seattle Pride Idol 2014. Doors at 7 p.m. and contest at 8 p.m. A panel of three to four judges will rate the contestants. There is no cover charge.

The 2014 Pride Idol Finale winner will perform in the Seattle Pride Parade on June 29, at the Pride Picnic on June 14, and potential performances at other events representing Pride Idol, and receive the grand prize of $1,000 and a vacation package from Alaska Airlines. The first runner-up will receive $500 and a T-Mobile iPad Mini, and the second runner-up will receive $250 and a Microsoft Surface Tablet.

All competitions will be hosted by Miss Gay Seattle, Olivia LaGarce.

For more information, call 206-322-9561, email info@seattlepride.org, or visit www.seattlepride.org.

SEATTLE GAY & LESBIAN
BOOK CLUB - FIREFLY
The Seattle Gay & Lesbian Book Club meets every Wednesday from 6-7:30 p.m., at Seattle Area Support Groups Community Center (303 17th Ave. E. at E. Thomas St.).

In June, the club will discuss Firefly by Janette Jenkins. For almost fifty years, the most popular playwright in the world was Noel Coward. At the end of his stellar career, to escape brutal British tax laws, he (and Ian Fleming, another Brit) went to live in Jamaica - and that's where he built Firefly, his final retreat from the world. Janette Jenkins' Firefly is a short (150 pages) and lovely written novel about this hugely successful 71 year-old Gay British playwright in Jamaica reflecting back on his life, and his friendship for one week with a temporary young Jamaican servant named Patrice, whose wildest dream is to be a silver-service waiter at the Ritz in London.

All GLBTQ folks are welcome to participate in this FREE book club. For more information, visit http://faculty.washington.edu/swittet/SGLBookClub/

GAGE ACADEMY OF ART -
BEST OF GAGE
STUDENT ART EXHIBIT
Student-artists from Gage Academy of Art in Seattle are putting their best work forward for the 22nd annual Best of Gage Student Art Exhibit, Awards & Sale, taking place on Friday, June 13, from 6 p.m.-10 p.m., at the Gage campus (1501 10th Ave. E.) on Capitol Hill. Open to the public free of charge, the event features a wide range of sizes, styles and mediums as students vie for top honors in nine categories, as well as the annual Best in Show Award, and the fan-favorite People's Choice Award.

Student art work - ranging from small studies to large compositions - is available for sale throughout the three floors of gallery spaces at Gage, as well as in the numerous artist studios throughout the building, making this an ideal opportunity for local collectors and art lovers to acquire outstanding art work at affordable prices.

More than 150 individual artworks will compete for the prestigious Best in Show Award, as well as 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place honors in nine categories: abstract, beginner, figure, landscape, portrait, sculpture, still life, narrative and teen. 2014 Guest Juror Greg Robinson, Executive Director of the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, will select the winners, and prizes will be handed out during the annual awards ceremony, beginning at 7:30 p.m., hosted by Gage Artistic Director Gary Faigin.

In addition to the FREE public event from 6 p.m.-10 p.m., Gage is proud to present the annual Vernissage at 5 p.m. the Vernissage is an opportunity for collectors to peruse art work at the 2014 Best of Gage and purchase work before the event opens to the general public. Tickets to the Vernissage are $50 and are available by emailing Kathleen@GageAcademy.org.

All proceeds from the 2014 Best of Gage go toward supporting educational programs for artists of all ages at Gage. The 2014 Best of Gage is sponsored by 4 Culture, The Office of Arts & Culture and Capitol Cider. For more information, visit GageAcademy.org/bestofgage.

ABOUT GAGE ACADEMY OF ART
Celebrating more than 20 years as a national center for classical training in the foundation principles of drawing, painting, and sculpture, Gage Academy of Art, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, features fine art programs year-round that engage and inspire emerging and established artists of all ages and abilities through rigorous study and practice in the Realist tradition. For more information, connect with Gage on Facebook and Twitter, or visit GageAcademy.org.

THEATRE 22 -
SUMMER PRIDE SERIES:
THE LISBON TRAVIATA
RICHARD HUGO HOUSE
JUNE 6-28
Theatre22's first annual SUMMER PRIDE SERIES presents The Lisbon Traviata, by Terrence McNally. Catty comedy meets operatic tragedy. Stephen adores Maria Callas and shares this obsession with his best friend, the wildly flamboyant opera queen, Mendy. They dish the latest gossip late into the night to distract Steven from a crumbling relationship with his longtime boyfriend. When Steven attempts to confront personal demons, his life takes on the scale of grand opera.

The Lisbon Traviata is a story about Gay men in New York in 1985 when few had faith in the adage that love conquers all. Being rejected by a lover is painful for anyone. But for a middle-aged male homosexual living in the age of AIDS, rejection is more than humiliation and hurt - it carries the threat of lifelong loneliness and celibacy, alleviated only by extremely risky sexual encounters. This threat is chilling, and the emotions it triggers are positively operatic in intensity.

Wikepedia writes: 'The Lisbon Traviata is a play by Terrence McNally initially written in 1985 and revised in 1989.
'It focuses on two of the playwright's favorite subjects, Gay relationships and Maria Callas, and includes one of his most memorable characters, flamboyantly bitchy and viciously wicked opera queen Mendy. Stephen, a depressed literary editor and opera fanatic, is on the verge of losing his doctor lover to a considerably younger Columbia University student. In Act I, he takes temporary refuge at the apartment of fellow opera aficionado Mendy to dish about divas, listen to records, and avoid thinking about his rapidly unravelling eight-year relationship. In Act II, he returns home to confront his unfaithful partner.

'The play derives its title from an actual 1958 Callas production of La Traviata at Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in the Portuguese capital. Two thousand copies of an unauthorized recording made by a cast member during a live performance, despite their amateur quality, quickly became collector's items among the diva's fans. Stephen recently has acquired one, which he neglected to bring with him, and Mendy is obsessed with his going home to retrieve it.'
Theatre22's production opens on Friday, June 6, at 8 p.m., at Richard Hugo House (1634 11th Ave.) and runs Thursdays through Saturdays through June 28 at 8 p.m., with two matinees on Saturdays, June 21 and June 28 at 2:30 p.m. Tickets: $22-general admission; $14-senior/student/military; $10 TPS members. www.brownpapertickets.com/event/575647. www.theatre22.org.

'It seems wholly appropriate to me that The Lisbon Traviata is Theatre22's first presentation with what will eventually become our 'Annual Summer Pride Series.' It's a rich and thought-provoking play that I think will very much connect with Seattle's LGBT community. And the wonderful thing is that it's a play that connects with all audiences. One doesn't have to be Gay or an opera nut to really 'get' this play. That's the genius of McNally's writing. It's a play about all of us.' -Gerald B. Browning, Director, The Lisbon Traviata

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